Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Retreat!

Regular KCRW listeners are keenly aware that when the Morning Goes Eclectic DJs find something they really like, they spin it EVERY morning, putting the emphasis on "heavy" in "heavy rotation." This January, Sharon Jones enjoyed their fandom.  Thanks to them, Stranger to My Happiness  is a 9:00 am drive down Washington Avenue.  Because I heard that track... every dang day around 9:00 am as I drove down Washington Avenue.  

Usually this would send me on a rant about what it is to be a professional DJ while flipping over to KPCC for three-to-four minutes. With Jones, though, I made an exception.  I smiled right along with everyone else when they announced, "Can you believe she performed this live just a day after finishing chemo?!"  No, I really couldn't.

I am fairly certain that she wrote Retreat prior to her cancer diagnosis.  It is likely that the song is about a man.  Hence, the "woman scorned" line, etc.

That's not how I see it, though.  I cannot help but envision this as her anthem as she went through chemotherapy this past year.  And what an anthem it is.  Put a mental image of Jones on stage in your photoalbum titled Champions, right beside the pictures you've collected of kids lifting trucks to save their family members, dogs running gaily despite having lost limbs, and Andre Agassi.

This is a song you need to play or sing when you're not sure if you believe the words, yourself.  Jones elevates herself to godlike status: she'll make the sea wild, engulf you in flames, and, ultimately, devour you.  How apt it is that this is the first track on Give The People What They Want---her illness is the elephant in the room that must be addressed, and she does so so beautifully.  Cancer?  Retreat! "That's what I say baby / And I don't care if it makes sense to you."

Maybe that's why I don't want this song to just be about a man.  I don't want it to be about a woman scorned, either, but I certainly can't rationalize myself out of that.  I want it to be about a woman who really is everything she says she can be.  A woman on stage, bald, but alive, who's here to give us her soul.  A woman without time or patience for your nonsense.  A woman who you wrongly assumed was an easy target.  Too bad, baby, you picked the wrong person, and this time, and she and the Dap Kings will not hesitate to blow you away.  If you know what's good for you, you'll back off before she counts to three.